OER-Facilitating Learning Online (FLO) Synchronous

Course Overview

Course Description

This course - Facilitating Learning Online (FLO) - Synchronous - introduces participants to best practice strategies to plan for, facilitate and follow up after facilitating synchronous online learning events. It is meant to help you enhance skills you need to confidently and effectively facilitate synchronous online learning. It is designed to provide you with opportunities to see and learn from examples of synchronous online facilitation and, if desired, practice synchronous online facilitation skills in a safe environment.

We say "if desired" in the above sentence because in this course you have a choice to engage in this course via one of two different "tracks". On one track you will review and provide feedback to your fellow course participants who choose to complete a facilitation (or co-facilitation) of a synchronous online session before the course is finished. On another track you will complete that facilitation or co-facilitation and reflect on feedback given to you. To decide which track is best for you, please visit Participant Tracks and Outcomes, the next page of this Course Overview.

FLO - Synchronous is a complementary course to RRU's "Facilitating Learning Online" fundamentals course, which supports facilitators to learn how to facilitate in asynchronous environments. Like that course, this course builds on the fundamental principles of the Instructional Skills Workshop. These principles are:

participatory and learner-centred - participants form a learning community and support each other's learning

a safe, respectful learning environment - you will be encouraged to take risks, be creative, and learn from your mistakes

feedback-rich - you will be encouraged to give and receive feedback with fellow participants

reflective practice - you will analyze and critically reflect on the art of facilitation and your facilitation skills

relevant and meaningful - you will explore the future application and transferability of your learning in this course

Technical Requirements

This course is focused on planning for and facilitating with synchronous web conferencing technologies such as Blackboard Collaborate, Adobe Connect, etc. However, you do not need to have access to a synchronous web conferencing system in order to be able to take this course; one will be provided (Blackboard Collaborate).

However, you do need to:

be able to connect to Blackboard Collaborate

have a webcam for your computer

have a headset for your computer (or at the very least a mic and speakers but a headset is the better choice)